La Bouquet with Lostboycrow and Modern Maps

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La Bouquet's 'Sad People Dancing' Album Release Party with lostboycrow and Modern Maps at The Hi Hat

La Bouquet: Los Angeles-based trio consisting of Bryan Sammis (formerly of The Neighbourhood), Jake Lopez and Drew Bruchs. The band craft a sound that siphons bedroom-rattling falsetto through post-punk soundscapes. It’s a striking blend that leaves the group existing between three worlds. Amuse debut LP 'Sad People Dancing' is set for release on March 29th, 2019.

The group have steadily gained critical acclaim since their inception from outlets as diverse as Ones To Watch, FLOOD, and Culture Collide for their “expertly combined emotional balladry and R&B with a punk sensibility” (Culture Collide), “...pristine guitar work and gorgeous melodies” (The 405), “emotional post-punk soundscapes” (Ones To Watch), and “slick fusion of contemporary pop punk and ’80s aesthetics” (Flood). Tour dates are forthcoming and will be announced on the band’s Facebook. “Sad People Dancing” follows the 2018 releases of “Names Like Songs” and the Sunshine Sessions collection, which saw La Bouquet experiment with acoustic interpretations of their 2017 EP 'Heavy Sunshine'. Also appearing on Sad People Dancing are “Loveless” and “Loser Baby”, both singles featured on KROQ Locals Only.

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lostboycrow: Magic exists in certain places. Under the shadow of national treasures a la the Puye Cliff Dwellings and Acoma Sky City, Santa Fe, NM remains steeped in a cross-section of American frontier lore. Not to mention, its vibrant arts scene would be home to the likes of Georgia O’Keeffe, among many others. Rife with natural creative energy and endless high desert inspiration, this magical little town served as the backdrop for Lostboycrow’s 2018 full-length debut, Santa Fe[RED Music]. It closes one chapter and opens another for the artist born Chris Blair. At the onset of his touring career in 2011, New Mexico welcomed him with open arms at cozy coffee houses. Even further back, the first song he performed live in high school would be “Santa Fe” from the musical Newsies. This confluence of serendipity inspired him to rent an Airbnb alongside a bunch of friends in January 2018 and create the album...“I was already in love with the people and energy of New Mexico, and Santa Fe is so beautiful,” he admits. “When it came time to do this record, I’d been longing to get back to my roots as a songwriter, building tunes on the acoustic guitar and being involved in every note, chord, line, lyric, and melody.I pivoted towards that.I got to go back to this place with a lot of new experiences.It became this meeting place between ‘then’ and ‘now’. That’s what the album is about. Santa Fe is a vehicle of exploring gratitude for where I am, who I am, and how I came to be Lostboycrow and ultimately do what I’m doing.”The years since he first hosted those intimate gigs in Albuquerque set the stage for such transformation in the high desert. Revered for his rapturous voice, off-kilter R&B panache, pure alternative perception, and airtight songwriting, Lostboycrow emerged as the ultimate pop enigma. By 2018, his cumulative streamsimpressivelytallied over 150 million highlighted by the success of “Powers,” “Stay A Little Longer,” “The Lost Boy”[feat. Skizzy Mars],and more. Meanwhile, he enchanted audiences everywhere alongside the likes ofVÉRITÉ, K. Flay, and Flor on the road. Along the way, he garnered acclaim from Billboard, Nylon, and Pigeons & Planes, to name a few.In order to reconnect with his roots, hetapped a bunch of close collaborators to join him in Santa Fe. Despite two days stuck in Flagstaff with the flu, he made it to this secluded Airbnb and presided over multiple makeshift studios instituted in various nooks and crannies throughout the living rooms and kitchenwhere inspiration freelyflowed—not to mention an open rooftop where he typically wrote on acoustic guitar.“We found alittle secondhand guitar shop on our first trip into town and then ended up buying an acoustic and electric which we were able to use on pretty much every track,” he goes on. “L.A. is a great place for music, but we wanted to get into a space outside of our natural environment together. We went to Santa Fe to discover a sound and planet to live on; that’s exactly what we did.”

He uncovers that planet via the introductorysingle “Waste Of Time” [feat. Bea Miller]. The first song written for the project, it captures his excitement with sunny handclaps, heavenly synths, a roaring guitar solo, and an unshakable shared harmony with Bea Miller.“Art is its own reward,” he exclaims. “It’s a reminder that, no matter what happens, the act of making art or writing a song is an accomplishment in and of itself.In this industry, it’s easy to get caught up in marketing and selling that you forget it. I say, ‘Create just to create’.”Santa Fetwists and turns through the “futuristic nostalgia”of “Suburban Home” and “Suburban Girl” to the electric guitar-driven soaring send-off of “Since The Day I Was Born.”“‘Sincethe Day I Was Born’is really a byproduct of the trip itself, he says. “Ireturned with the majority of the album outlined and knew where Iwanted it to live conceptually so the song became a retrospectiveanthem for the place I had been writing from in Santa Fe. Exploringthat peaceful disregard of future uncertainty with gratitude for thepast and where it has gathered me now with those I love.”In the end, Lostboycrow captured real magic in Santa Fe.“I went to this foreign place in the desert to explore a new frontier with my music,” he leaves off. “I think we accomplished that...As far as who I am goes, I thought I had to be bigger than Chris, which is why I chose the name. I think Lostboycrow is finally Chris—perhaps for the first timenow.That’s the album.”